1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a system and a method for production and subsequent palletizing of tube segments, bags or sacks. The system includes at least one functional unit for the production of tube segments, bag or sacks, at least one device for depositing and stacking, which places and stacks the finished tube segments, bags or sacks, and at least one storage element such as a palette, in which the stack can be deposited.
2. Description of the Prior Art
These types of systems are known since a long time. Tube segments, bags or sacks are produced in general from single or multi-layered sheets of material in processing machines meant for it. To form the tube segments, devices of the type shown and described, for instance, in the patent document DE 36 40 219 C1 and in DE 44 40 660 C2, are used. Sacks, such as in the form of cross bottom valve sacks, can be fabricated from this type of tube segments. In the patent document DE 195 49 618 C2, it is shown how the ends of a piece of a tube are drawn up in the production this type of cross bottoms. However, various other types of sacks and bags are also known, which are produced with different types of devices. Thus, such devices are also known, with which the carry bags with handles are produced from paper sheets.
Even when the named documents are concerned mostly with paper sheets or tubes, the present invention is not limited to this material. Tube segments, bags or sacks made from plastic or from a combination of plastic and paper are also possible. Similarly, as mentioned at the beginning, the material can also consist of one or more layers.
The said tube segments, bags or sacks are normally stacked for the purpose of their transportation or storage. For stacking the products the known systems include a stacking device, as shown, for instance, in the patent document DE 37 07 845 C2. As a rule, these stacks are subsequently deposited on palettes in order to be able to transport them easily. However, the stacks can also be temporarily stored on or in temporary storages before they are arranged or deposited on storage elements. After stacking, and after their possible temporary storage, the stacks are arranged and deposited in storage elements.
The stacks made from tube segments, bags or sacks can be arranged and stacked in large numbers in a storage element, if the edges of the tube segments lie exactly one on top of the other in the individual stacks, which lie on one another. In the known systems, for production and palletizing, there is room for improvement potential in this regard. Moreover, the stacks are in general deposited manually in the storage elements. This procedure is slow and is ridden with immense inaccuracies, very personnel-intensive and hence expensive. On the whole, the procedures according to the present state of the technology for arranging and storing of the stacks are very ineffective.
Therefore the task posed by the present invention is to propose a system for production and subsequent palletizing of tube segments, bags or sacks, which avoids the aforesaid disadvantages.